Trenton man's jail ordeal chronicled in attorney's new book

TRENTON — A city man who claims he was wrongfully convicted of robbery still spent more than three years in jail. Despite it all, he still has faith in the system.

Nathaniel Oliver was convicted on multiple charges and sentenced to seven years in jail by Judge Raymond Hayser on Oct. 4, 2002. The tall, lanky city resident filed an appeal in March 2003 while incarcerated at a state correctional facility. On April 14, 2004, the Appellate Division reversed the defendant’s conviction, on a technicality and remanded the case for a new trial. The re-trial began on May 16, 2005 before Judge Maryann Bielamowicz and lasted 4 days. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty on all 6 counts: robbery, theft, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon.

“I served three years in jail, for no reason, but I didn’t get angry, I just prayed,” said Oliver. The mild mannered 59-year-old’s story is the central focus for a new book called “Jacket: The Trials of a New Jersey Criminal Defense Attorney,” written by an lawyer who ultimately helped Oliver gain back his freedom, John Hartmann.

“When I first met Nate, he was like a breath of fresh air,” said Hartmann. “You know a lot of people in jail say they are innocent, but Nate really was.”

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According to Oliver, the nightmare that stole three years of his life started one evening in November 2000. The city man, who never had a criminal record, worked three part-time jobs and earned a combined salary of $12,000 a year. On that evening, he was making his way to his night-time position as a surveyor for a telemarketing company in Princeton.

“I was sitting on the steps in front of a beauty shop, after picking up a sandwich and my grape soda for dinner,” said Oliver. “I was waiting about 45 minutes for the bus when a detective walked up to me and started asking me questions.”

According to Hartmann’s book, the Trenton police report indicated a robbery had occurred earlier that evening at a local food market called Halo Farms. The suspect, an African-American male entered the store, grabbed a small item from the dairy isle then went to one of the registers. He placed the item on counter belt with his left hand and pulled a knife out of his coat pocket with the right, demanding money from the woman behind the register. The woman handed the suspect approximately $310 and the man left.

When police arrived on scene, the victim described the suspect as a middle-aged black male dressed in dark clothing. He wore a cap on his head and had slight facial hair. She estimated that the robber was just a few inches taller than she was and she gave her own height as five foot seven inches tall.

At 7:45 p.m., approximately 20 minutes after the robbery occurred, Trenton Detective Scott Byrnes began to canvas the area to find the suspect. He saw Oliver, who bore a slight resemblance to the description of the suspect, sitting about a block away from the grocery store. The detective began to question Oliver, however, when Oliver stood up to speak to the detective he was a towering six foot four inches, much taller than the description of the suspect.

“He started asking me questions like where is the money bag and where is the knife,” recalled Oliver. “I told him I didn’t do anything wrong, I work by the sweat of my brow, so I consented to a pat down.”

The detective, according to Oliver, was getting agitated, and in an effort to clear his name, Oliver volunteered to be taken to Halo Farms in the hopes that the victim would confirm that he was not the man who committed the robbery.

“They brought me there in a police car and once she saw me with all these police officers around she was coerced into saying it was me,” he said.

Oliver was immediately charged and bail was set for $150,000 cash or bond, an amount he was unable to pay. He was detained in jail until his trial.

The jury at his initial trial in 2002, found him guilty and he was sent to the Mercer County Correctional Center to await sentencing. There, the God-fearing, Bible-preaching inmate began the appeals process. “When the verdict came in that I was guilty, all I heard was 20 years and everything else was a blur, I heard nothing else,” Oliver said.

According to Hartmann’s book, the lawyer received the case from a county prosecuting attorney who asked Hartmann to look into Oliver’s case. The prosecutor believed Oliver was innocent and, due to a conflict of interest, could not represent Oliver during the appeals process, but Hartmann could. Eventually Hartmann, who is currently defending Ralphiel Mack in a federal corruption case, was able to overturn Oliver’s original guilty verdict.

In total, Oliver spent three years, 10 months and 22 days behind bars, for a crime he didn’t commit. The religious man says he is not angry about what happened to him and does not plan on suing the city for restitution. He said he had patience throughout the process and prayed every day that he would be acquitted. “It is difficult to be a victim and to be falsely accused,” said Oliver. “All I got was an ‘I’m sorry,’ from the judge.”

The Prosecutor’s office does not believe Oliver was unjustly imprisoned or that the system failed him, “Nathaniel Oliver appropriately spent three years in prison after a jury found him guilty, he did not fall through any cracks, and we are confident that there are no cases in Mercer County where innocent people have been sent to prison,” said Doris M. Galuchie Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. “As prosecutors, we are not in the business of sending innocent people to jail. On the contrary, it is just as important, if not more so, for us to exonerate the innocent, than to convict the guilty.”